Bizarre Records

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Bizarre Records was an American independent label founded by composer and rock musician Frank Zappa and his then manager Herb Cohen in October 1968. The label mainly released records by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention , but also productions by Lenny Bruce , Wild Man Fischer and Sandy Hurvitz.

history

When the MGM / Verve label failed to take an option to extend its contract with the Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa and his manager Herb Cohen founded the record label Bizarre Records in October 1968 . It was created by renaming the label Bizarre Productions , which was founded in 1967, and became part of Zappa's own entertainment group Bizarre Inc. In addition to the sister label Straight Records , which was founded in spring 1969, it also included a management company, the PR and advertising agency Nifty Tough & Bitchen (NT&B), the music publisher Third Story Music , a film production company and a book publisher.

The company, described by Zappa as "a kind of semi-independent label" (p. 96f) , was based in Los Angeles . The company logo was designed by Cal Schenkel ; it shows the line drawing of an old medical pump. This logo can already be seen on the record sleeves of the Mothers albums Cruising with Ruben & the Jets and Mothermania and on the record Sandy's album Is Here At Last by Sandy Hurvitz. However, these records were still released by MGM-Verve - a compromise that Zappa and Cohen had to make in order to be able to finally terminate the old contract. The label Reprise Records was entrusted with the distribution of the Bizarre Records productions , which then and now belongs to the Warner Bros. Group as a sub-label . According to the contract, Warner could initially dispose of the Zappa productions. If the group did not take advantage of this opportunity, Zappa was allowed to publish the material on its Straight label.

Verve records had been released under the Bizarre Productions logo since 1967. The earliest releases are the commercial single "Lonely Little Girl" / "Mother People" sent to disc jockeys and the albums We're Only in It for the Money and Lumpy Gravy , all by the Mothers of Invention. This was followed by the already mentioned three albums by Sandy Hurvitz and the Mothers, whereby Cruising with Ruben & the Jets advertised with further promotional singles ("Deseri" / "Jelly Roll Gumdrop" and "Any Way The Wind Blows" / "Jelly Roll Gumdrop") has been. The film music for Frank Zappa's 200 Motels , distributed by United Artists in 1971 , concluded the era of Bizarre Productions . All of the Zappa / Mothers albums released under the Bizarre Productions logo were in the top 200 in the United States. With 30th place the most successful among them was We're Only in It for the Money .

The first release for Bizarre Records came on September 10, 1968: the single "The Circle" / "Merry-Go-Round" by Wild Man Fischer, a singer and street musician from Los Angeles. The first album released by the label was the double LP The Berkeley Concert by the American stand-up comedian and satirist Lenny Bruce in February 1969 , which was followed in April by Wild Man Fischer's double album An Evening With Wild Man Fischer .

Bizarre Records released his first Mothers album in April 1969: Uncle Meat . It followed until the end of 1972, when Bizarre Records was dissolved in favor of the new Zappa label DiscReet Records , up to and including the album The Grand Wazoo, all other releases of this group and Frank Zappas. Even under the new name, the label remained commercially successful. Except for the last album, everyone else made it into the top 200. With rank 38, the live album Fillmore East, June 1971 achieved the best ranking among them.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article in TIME magazine (as of April 2007)
  2. ↑ Frank Zappa, Peter Occhiogrosso: I am the American Dream . Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, Munich, 1991. ISBN 3-442-32536-6
  3. ↑ Billboard placements (as of April 2007)

literature

Web links